AN eight-year-old boy was killed by his uncle in a tragic but avoidable accident on a North Wales farm, a court heard yesterday.

Thomas Baybutt, who lived on one family farm near Southport, was spending a few days on holiday at his grandparents' farm at Wood Farm, Sealand, Flintshire, last year, when he was run over in a shed by a reversing forklift truck driven by his uncle Stuart William Banks, and died from multiple injuries.

Earlier, Thomas, and another child aged four, had been allowed to ride on the truck - something it was not designed for, Flintshire magistrates were told.

At the time of the accident Mr Banks did not know the whereabouts of Thomas.

Yesterday WT Banks and Co (Farming) Ltd., admitted a charge brought by the Health and Safety Executive of failing to ensure the little boy's safety and was fined £17,500 with £2,779 costs.

But magistrates said that it had not been an easy case to deal with, and extended their "great sympathy" to the whole family involved.

Chairman Mr John Braybrook said the only mitigation was the cooperation of those involved, and the deep remorse and obvious grief suffered by the family as a result of the failure of the company to meet the expected standard of safety.

A similar charge personally against Thomas' uncle, as a director of the company, was withdrawn after the court heard that he had admitted the offence and received a caution.

The HSE had read a psychiatric report prepared on the uncle after the tragedy occurred, and decided it was not in the public interest to proceed against him personally.

Solicitor Mr Tudor Williams, prosecuting for the HSE, said the incident occurred on October 22 when the truck was being reversed in the potato grading shed by Mr Banks. Nobody else apart from Mr Banks and the boy were present when the incident took place.

Mr Banks admitted that Thomas had been riding on the fork lift truck with him on six separate journeys before the tragedy.

"The vehicle was not designed or intended for the carrying of passengers let alone a young child."

Defending solicitor Richard Smyth disputed that the company had fallen far below the expected standard.

In road traffic terms it would not have been a charge of causing death by dangerous driving, but the lesser offence of careless driving where a death occurred, he said.

* At an inquest in July North East Wales coroner John Hughes recorded a verdict of accidental death and described it as "a desperate tragedy."

The boy's parents, Frank and Andrea Baybutt, of New Cut Lane, Halsall, Ormskirk, both asked that no-one be blamed.